Friday, May 29, 2015

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"What gets measured gets done." — Mason Haire

There
are number of variation of this quote attributable to several notable
authors. It is often recalled in some
discussion of performance metrics or motivation.

Metrics
matter! What gets measured gets changed and what gets rewarded gets done. If
you don't measure it, you can't change it and if you don't reward change it
will not happen.

Choosing
the right metrics is critical to success. It is not enough to simply create a
numeric measure. The measure should accurately reflect the process. We use
metrics to base decisions on and to focus our actions. It is not only important
to measure the right indicators, it is important to measure them well.

Although
there may never be a single perfect measure, it is certainly possible to create
a measure or even multiple measures which reflect the performance of your
system. If the metrics are chosen carefully, then, in the process of achieving
their metrics, managers and employees will make the right decisions and take
the right actions that enable the organization to maximize its performance.

Metrics
create an environment of accountability throughout the organization. An organization that closely tracks
performance metrics creates a culture where goal achievement is the norm and
where there is no room for mediocrity.

Using
Dashboards to Develop Leaders – Gregg Stocker says dashboards are a perfect
place to demonstrate to leaders how to fulfill the responsibilities of
developing others, creating alignment, and driving improvement.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Technically
the calendar says summer doesn't start until June, but Memorial Day weekend is
an unofficial start to a summer of barbecues, parades, and all-around fun. But
let's not forget what the holiday is really all about: a patriotic tribute to
our fallen, the men and women who gave their lives so we might be free.

As
opposed to Veterans Day, which honors living veterans, Memorial Day is a time
to remember those who have died while in military service. The holiday
originally started as Decoration Day, where the graves of soldiers were
decorated with flowers and flags.At the first ceremony at Arlington National
Cemetery, 5,000 people participated in decorating the graves of fallen soldiers
from the Civil War. It wasn’t until after World War I, when the holiday changed
from recognizing Civil War soldiers to honoring all dead military.In 1971, Congress
declared the last Monday in May Memorial Day, a national holiday.

Memorial
Day is a day of reflection and remembrance. It is a day to remember all of our
Fallen Heroes from all of the wars. It is a day to think about the families
that will forever grieve for their lost loved one. It is a day to be thankful
to those who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice. They fought and died
to win the freedom and democracy that we Americans cherish so dearly. They also
fought and died to bring that same freedom and democracy to the people of other
countries as well.

In
the words of Thomas Sherlock, Arlington National Cemetery Historian, “the most
important thing parents can tell their children is that we, as Americans, are
able to enjoy the freedoms we do because there have been men and women willing
to sacrifice their lives so that we can be free. We should all stop and remember this on
Memorial Day.”

The true meaning is to remember and honor
veterans of all wars and peacetime service who paid the ultimate price to keep
America free. They will long be remembered in our hearts.

“The
cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path
we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.” John
Fitzgerald Kennedy

Take
a moment this Memorial Day to remember all those men and women who have so
bravely and honorably served this country. The courage and sacrifice of all who
died in military service will not be forgotten.

Friday, May 22, 2015

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week." — General George Patton

Often managers spot a chance to do something valuable for their company, but for some reason, they cannot get started. Even if they begin the project, they give up when they see the first big hurdle. The inability to take purposeful action seems to be pervasive across companies. Managers tend to ignore or postpone dealing with crucial issues which require reflection, systematic planning, creative thinking, and above all, time.If you do nothing, nothing changes. Things at rest have a tendency to remain at rest. Be aware of items that stall your action. It's better to have a 50-percent improvement right away than it is to take no action and hope for a 100-percent improvement sometime in the future.The only cure for inactivity is action. That’s why the first step in creating a successful culture of execution is creating a bias toward action. People who make things happen need to be praised and rewarded. People who don’t should be coached to change, or weeded out. Failure cannot be unduly punished. Unless people feel free to make mistakes, they will not feel free to take bold actions.For leaders, action is one of the most important traits they can embody. Taking action means getting things done. It means seizing the initiative. It conveys momentum, and energy, and creating something new, something that didn’t exist before. And this excites followers and others who understand that going towards something is always better than sitting around staring at the wall.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Today marks the 6th anniversary of A Lean Journey Blog and as tradition here each year I take the opportunity to reflect. The act of "self-reflection" is called Hansei is Japanese. It is the practice of continuous improvement that consists of looking back and thinking about how a process can be improved.I’d like to think that I turned my naive endeavor to share learning along my own journey into a successful contribution in the Lean community. As I have said before this labor of love has been a tremendous learning process both from the great fans and other colleagues online that I exchange with and from the process of distilling my own learning with you.I love statistics, so with this milestone, here are some numbers from the blog:Total Posts: 1215Most read post: DOWNTIME and the Eight Wastes with over 21,000 viewsfollowed by The Six-Step Problem-Solving Process (with over 20,000 views)Least read post: You Won’t Get Lean, Until You Get VisualNumber of countries/territories who have visited this blog: 216Top 3 Countries with the most views:U.S.A.United KingdomCanadaTotal views: Over 737,000 and climbingUnique visits: Over 550,000Total comments: Over 1,500Total Facebook Fans: Over 1,355Total Twiter Followers: Over 2,700LinkedIn Members: Over 1,100Top 5 posts this past year:The Six-Step Problem-Solving ProcessWhat Lean is Not - 10 Things That Are Not Lean5 Tips for Implementing 5SCarrots and Sticks Don’t Motivate in a Thinking EnvironmentWalt Disney, The Lean ThinkerI would like to thank all the visitors and contributors to A Lean Journey Blog this past year. It has been a successful Journey this past year. Please, share your feedback so that A Lean Journey can be even more successful next year.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Today I am pleased to be able share a guest post sponsored by one of our sponsors 9001 Academy. This post compares two product recalls in terms of a quality management system.

Product recalls
are something we have become used to in our society. As I argued in my article Does a
QMS ensure 100% quality?, product recalls do not mean that
there is a complete failure of the quality management system. In fact, the
existence of requirements for a process to deal with non-conforming products is
evidence that the ISO 9001 standard expects that
an organization will need to deal with products that do not meet requirements;
however, this process can either work well or be flawed. This article looks at
two recent examples of the non-conforming product process as it deals with
product recalls in the automotive industry.

What is needed in a non-conforming product process?

First, let’s look quickly at the requirements for
a non-conforming material
process, in particular, the requirements of what needs to be done to deal with
a non-conformance when one is identified. In Section 8.3, the ISO 9001 standard
requires that the organization take action to deal with an identified
non-conforming product in one of four ways:

1.Take
actions to eliminate the non-conformance

2.Authorize
use with acceptance from the customer when needed (intended for
non-conformances that do not hinder the operation of the product or service)

3.Take
action to preclude original use (scrap or use as “seconds” where this is acceptable)

4.Take
action to eliminate the effects of the non-conformity when it is detected after
delivery, or when use of the product has started

It is requirement
4 that could trigger a product recall if a repair needed to be made to the
delivered product. The next two examples demonstrate where this failed to
happen quickly enough, and when it has happened in a timely manner.

GM ignition switch defects: When the process failed

In February 2014,
General Motors (GM) instituted a recall of 2.6 million vehicles worldwide for a
problem with defective ignition switches. The defect with this product is that
the ignition switch can slip out of the “on” position while driving, which can
lead to the car stalling and the air bags turning off. As of October 2014, this
has caused 27 deaths and many more injuries, leading to compensation claims
against the company along with the expense of the recall itself.

News reports state
that GM has acknowledged that it knew about the faulty ignition switches in
several of its small cars for over a decade before the recall was initiated. It
is clear that in this case, the decision on taking action on non-conformities
that were already delivered was not timely.

GM sunroof recall: When the process works

Just over a year
later, in March 2015, GM issued a recall for Chevrolet Malibu models due to
overly sensitive controls. This followed a recall of Cadillac ATS models in
February 2014 for the same issue. The controls in question would cause the
sunroof to close with only a slight touch of the controls. According to the
company, it does not take much force on the controls for the power sunroof
button to make the sunroof close, which could pose a safety hazard such as
fingers being caught in the closing unit.

In this case,
there are currently no known injuries from the defect, nor has GM received any
customer complaints, but still the recall was issued to address the problem.
Clearly, the process to address non-conforming products has addressed delivered
product as it is intended to do.

Make sure you address all non-conforming products or
services

The key point is
that a process for non-conforming products needs to address all products
or services when your company identifies a problem. Sometimes it is easy to
forget that products or services that are already delivered need to be included
when you are making your decisions on how to address a problem. In many cases,
there may be no action needed for a product or service already delivered, but
the decision on these products and services that are already in the hands of
your customers needs to be made and properly recorded. You owe it to your
customers to consider them in your dispositions, and customer satisfaction is a
key reason to have a quality management system in place.

About the Author:

Mark Hammar is a Product Assurance Manager and freelance author. Positions include working in all aspects of Product Assurance, including Supplier Quality Engineer, Quality Engineer, Product Assurance Program Manager, and Quality System Auditor. He is certified with the American Society of Quality as a Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence. His goal is to work more in Quality Management including supervision and people management.

Friday, May 15, 2015

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Many hands make light work." — John Heywood

A
common saying we have all heard about teamwork that means the more people that
do a job, the easier the job for each person.
This is true in Lean.

Continuous
improvement is about small changes on a daily basis to make your job
easier. Small step-by-step improvements
are more effective over time than occasional kaizen bursts, and have a
significantly greater impact on the organization culture - creating an
environment of involvement and improvement.

Lean
is meant to involve the whole company. It is not intended to be put into action
in only one area. It is a management philosophy which should include every part
of your organization. This helps promote the concept that everyone in the company
is part of the team. True Lean manufacturing needs the involvement of everyone
coming into contact with the company’s product and its customer.

Improvement
should be ongoing and employees should be a critical part of that process so
there is not fear of change but a willingness to embrace it because it’s a part
of the everyday process in the organization. As employees begin to demonstrate
a willingness to assimilate change into their daily routine, they develop a
commitment to the change, a willingness to stick to the plan of action. The change actually becomes integrated into
the work environment, and employees begin to feel a sense of satisfaction in
accomplishment. They readily see the
payoffs associated with the change. They
enjoy, and may even take credit for, their participation in the process. Employees can view their efforts to bring
about change with personal respect and pride. The change becomes a part of
their routine, and any lingering concerns vanish.

In
Lean we strive for a culture in which everyone in the company makes small
improvements to their work environment everyday. Many organizations start with large
activities with titles like Kaizen or improvement events. This is necessary in the beginning to create
the conditions for change. You need to
teach people how and why to improve. The
Kaizened area then serves as a powerful example for the rest of the
organization to learn from. But as we
strive for "True North" we want to create an environment where
continuous improvement occurs regularly as part of the work.